Rain in Copenhagen

So it was payback day (actually only the morning) for all the awesome weather we have had here. I could hear it pouring outside when my eyes cracked open this morning. The plan was to take the train to Copenhagen and get a walking tour with a guy named Richard who dresses up as Hans Christian Andersen. We have rain jackets but no umbrella so the hotel just happened to have an extra umbrella a guest had forgotten and we both tucked under it and walked to the railroad station in our little town of Roskilde. We bought a 24 hour ticket that as it turned out was good for all the transportation (metro and buses) in Copenhagen as well. It took about 30 minutes to get to the station in downtown Copenhagen on the nice smooth quiet electric train (we've got to get some of these). We asked about driving into Copenhagen but parking is sky high in the city and you can tell because this disincentive works because there are very few cars in Copenhagen and lots of walking streets and lots of bicycles and a few scooters here and there. We hit the tourist info place where we were supposed to meet Richard and loaded up on maps. Richard arrived in his top hat, coat and tails (the Hans Christian Andersen garb) and apologized that it was raining too hard to really give us a tour that would be much good because all the interesting stuff he usually does is outside. He did do another tour in the afternoon at Rosenborg Castle so we told him we might meet him there. So we decided to go to the National Museum but stopped at city hall (free admission) mostly because it was raining so hard. We ran into Richard (Hans), his old high school buddy from New Jersey (Steve) and a woman from San Francisco (Amy) and Richard decided to take us to the Bertel Thorvaldsens museum (whoever he was). I had actually seen his name on a few things over the last couple of days so we joined them. Richard didn't charge us anything but was going there anyway. He turned out to be like a non-stop encyclopedia and basically wore us out with all the info we got. If you walk into a museum or town and walk around, you have no idea what you are looking at but if you have a guy like this framing everything you are seeing, it is a whole different thing. It was raining so hard on the way to the museum that he stopped by a restaurant that he knew and chatted up the owner who gave us all complimentary shots of schnapps to warm us up. Class act.

So Thorvaldsens was a sculptor who worked with his dad (also a sculptor) but really had natural talent and blew by his dad quickly (sounds like dad was ok with that). He was a natural and soon became the most sought after sculptor in the world at that time (1770 to 1844). He had the talent but the market was in Rome so at an early age, he moved to Rome and set up shop to make sculptures for kings and rich folks all over the world. He first did plaster casts, then had his "students" rough out the marble version, then he finished the marble versions. He did a lot of plaster sculptures that did not end up being transferred to stone and many of these were on display as well. The style of the day was based around Greek mythology so most of the famous guys wanted to be dressed in togas, as did their wives. He also did a lot of religious pieces. All I could think of was another one of those lucky people who discovered their natural ability, loved what they did and made a long successful career out of it (and got wicked rich). He really did have the talent and it showed in the beautiful pieces he did.

So after that we went back out in the rain and dropped in at the Christiansborg Palace and saw the royal viewing rooms. where all the official royal events take place. The monarchy sort of dissolved in the early 1800's after they set up a Parliament, but the Danes still love their royal family and keep the traditions alive. We saw the most amazing tapestries that were done just a few years ago by a Danish artist that took 60 people 10 years to weave. They were full of Danish historical references and just the research must have taken him years. Another passionate guy with a really big project leaving his mark.

The history of royal families is fun to figure out because the marriages were to make alliances between countries and a lot of wheeling and dealing was going on to combine countries or territories. The most colorful monarch in Denmark is Christian IV (1577 to 1648) who took the throne at 19 and lived to be 70 and devoted each and every day to doing really interesting and edgy stuff. The public loved him, got behind him and Denmark truly advanced during the time of his reign. I have to read his biography when I get back because he sounds like a dynamo. He had a castle (actually he had a lot of stuff built) and was out each day while they were building it measuring the stones to make sure the workers got it right. He partied a lot, always participated personally on the front lines of any wars Denmark entered into on horseback (unlike our leaders today), and generally was a well loved king and role model (except for the womanizing parts). He built Rosenborg Castle as his summer home and this is the tour Richard was giving in the afternoon. This tour was inside so we had a group of about 10 people which was about the right size for this castle as some of the viewing areas are small. Richard gave us the entire scoop on Christian IV and a lot of his stuff was there. The Danish crown jewels were there as well under lock and key.
So at the end of the tour we said good bye to the folks we'd met and went to find something warm to drink. We ran into Richard and his high school buddy again at a bakery and warmed up with coffee and tea. We then decided it was too late to do the National Museum so we did a walking tour of our own out of the Rick Steves' book. These are great because they get you away from the fray and help you look past all of the modern stuff and points out the buildings on the back streets that have the richest stories. We did this until we got near the harbor and then decided to hop on the Metro and go out of the city, just to ride the super high tech subway with no driver (all done with computers folks). What a fantastic transport system they have here. It is weird to sit in the front of the train, where a driver might sit and go from stop to stop smoothly and quietly. We came back into the city and decided to stop in Christiania. This is a hippie commune community in the 1970's and there was a restaurant there that Deb had read about. The restaurant looked out of business and the community is still there, but it looked like it had gotten a little rough. They had signs saying"No Photos" everywhere I can assume because there are still drug deals going on there. We got out of there and back on the Metro, and found a restaurant to celebrate Deb's birthday. We found a great place which turned out to be the oldest restaurant in Copenhagen and had amazing fish on the menu. They brought out chocolate cake with a candle and the other folks in the restaurant seemed to enjoy my rendition of Happy Birthday. I did not know how to sing it in Danish, sorry.

It was getting late so we walked back to the train station (seeing the accordion street performer for the third time today - he must go from street to street all day) and hopped on the next train home which tonight took about 20 minutes. Oh yeah, it stopped raining midday so the afternoon was great. Tomorrow we stay around Roskilde to see the Viking museum and go for a drive to see Christian IVs winter castle.